Xiaomi has just released the latest product of its own TV box, which is called the enhanced version of the millet box. The new version of the millet box will not unexpectedly improve the configuration, use a white appearance, all aspects of the parameters have been enhanced than the previous generation products, 399 yuan price is not expensive. It can be seen, millet is still a certain amount of effort on this product.
What are the highlights of the new generation of TV boxes?
The millet box 3 enhanced hardware parameters are more representative in this year's market. Compared with previous products, the biggest improvement of the latest generation of TV boxes from major manufacturers is undoubtedly the support for 4k HEVC 10bit encoded video. HEVC 10bit is the next-generation video encoding format. Compared with the current mainstream h.264 8bit encoding format, the former can reduce the video bit rate by half to 2/3 while maintaining the same picture quality, making it ideal for 4k video production. However, in order to save space, the complexity of this coding is much higher than that of h.264, which puts high requirements on the performance of the decoding device.
From the test results of several existing 4k HEVC 10bit videos, it is unrealistic to simply decode with CPU software. Taking the 4k/60 FPS version of the Girls' Generation concert as an example, the minimum threshold for fluent soft solutions is the 6-core Core i7 CPU. Obviously, no TV box or mobile device CPU can have such a powerful performance.
Since CPU decoding is an “impossible taskâ€, the burden of handling 4k HEVC 10bit video falls on the hardware decoding unit. Due to the complexity of this format, it was not until the last half of the year that the industry began to have chips with hard decoding capabilities. TV boxes, tablets, and mobile phones that use such chips can easily cope with 60fps high-definition video, making most PCs sigh.
In addition to support for next-generation video encoding, the A72 CPU core used in the enhanced version of Xiaomi Box 3 is also very representative. In the past few years, the CPUs used in mainstream TV boxes have gone through several generations of Cortex-A7, A15, and A53 cores, and now it is an important advancement to replace the A72 cores. Compared with the A53 core, the performance of the A72 is greatly improved, which can significantly improve the daily application experience of the box.
Hardware upgrades hide the "soft" flaw in TV boxes
Although the improvement of hardware specifications in the new generation of TV boxes is obvious to all, and major manufacturers are also eager to upgrade their product lines, these advances have little meaning in the face of reality. The most important thing for users to buy a TV box is video content. Few people will over-tangle the performance parameters of the box. The family is not sitting in front of the TV to browse the web with a remote control. If the TV box has no program to watch, even if it is "cost-effective", it is only in the cupboard.
However, under the strict constraints of the policy environment, the current television box content system has been castrated in horrible conditions. Two or three years ago, users could watch TV live on the box and browse the contents of major video websites. The programs are far more abundant than cable TV networks. Now this kind of experience has become a good memory. The remaining purpose of the TV box is to play back the downloaded video file. It is worth mentioning. Only the video resources on the Internet are getting harder and harder to obtain. It is only for the occasion to buy a box to watch a downloaded movie occasionally. Consumers who want to do so are only a few.
In front of a content-constrained environment, no matter how the TV box improves hardware, it cannot ignite market enthusiasm as it once did. If the policy has not been loosened for a long time, manufacturers have not been able to take effective measures. It can be expected that the domestic TV box market will be completely marginalized and become an optional existence.
In front of reality, what are the outlets for the boxes?
If the domestic TV box manufacturers still want to do something in the living room terminal equipment market, perhaps the only way out is to transform into a living room game equipment. With the rapid increase in the performance of mobile devices, the comprehensive level of mobile platform games today is close to that of console games a few years ago. TV boxes are all based on the Android platform and can be directly compatible with mainstream mobile games. If the box has good performance, comes with a good gamepad, and can easily find a game suitable for large-screen operation, it can naturally attract many consumers who want to relax after work.
To transform a living room gaming device, TV box manufacturers need to further increase the GPU performance of the product, increase the internal storage space, and use the gamepad as a standard accessory for the box. More importantly, companies need to cooperate with mobile game developers and application store platforms to create a dedicated game ecosystem for TV boxes. This is certainly not an easy task, but once successful, it can certainly reverse the current decline in the television box market and regain the public's favor. Compared with video programs, the regulatory pressures faced by game applications are relatively small, and the implementation of such strategies need not worry too much about policy risks. On the whole, the transformation of the living room game platform is probably the only hope for the domestic TV box market.
The TV box has experienced the arduous period of early years and it has reached the embarrassing situation of today. The future development cannot be optimistic. If the production company still just upgrades the hardware of the product according to the conventions and is in no position to solve the problem of content, no one will soon be interested in such equipment. Whether it is to sit and watch the market gradually die out in silence or find ways to change the status quo depends on the determination of a box maker.
Cooked Comments:
At present, the control of the Internet video in the living room may be stricter and stricter, and the flaws in the content are inevitable. Although there are suspicions regarding the protection of the radio and television channels in the policy, they do need to be controlled. On the one hand, the copyright protection of the original content is one. The aspect is to consider such emerging audiences as children and the elderly. Transitioning to the living room game, Apple has taken the lead in Apple TV, but the game also needs ecological support, which is probably a big mountain in front of the TV box.